By Ron Shevlin
Ivan Schneider wrote an excellent piece on his blog recently, titledAdvice to Credit Unions: Innovate or Die, that has had me thinking for a week.
Ivan attended the recent Bar Camp Bank meeting in Seattle, which I was really bummed to miss because so many of my favorite people attended (for another write-up, see William Azaroff’sblog post).
Here are some of the points from Ivan’s post that jumped out at me (and my take on them, of course):
“Credit unions are capable, strategic opportunists. Whether it’s a pullback in small business lending or a cultural moment of dissatisfaction with big banks, CUs have been ready and willing to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.Yet these opportunistic stories [e.g., Bank Transfer Day] are not enough, as the big banks won’t stay easy targets for long.”
My take:Spot on. InJune 2012, I wrote “We Americans like to have our villains to blame all the evils of society on, but those villains come and go. Are banks still the Satan-incarnate?”
The answer to my rhetorical question has remained yes. But listen up, CU people: The seeds of a reversal in opinion have been sown. The Wall Street Journal picked up on this recent in a recent op-ed piece.
